World’s second largest diamond sells for $53 million

The 1,109-carat uncut diamond has finally found a buyer who bought it at $53 million. The diamond which failed to sell at a Sotheby’s auction has been purchased by Graff Diamonds, a luxury jeweler.

Canada’s Lucara, the seller, got the massive diamond about two years ago from Botswana’s Karowe mine and named it Lesedi La Rona, which connotes ‘Our Light’ when interpreted in the Tswana language.

Lucara hoped to sell the diamond for about $70 million, owing to the idea that it’s the largest gem even found in over a century. Lucara said the price Graff paid topped the biggest bid gotten in the last year’s Sotheby auction but goes below the $63 million Lucara got for The Constellation, which was a lesser diamond of 813-carats.

Graff Diamonds

Graff Diamonds, based in U.K has a reputable history of purchasing multimillion dollar deals when it comes to precious stones. It purchased the 603-carat uncut Lesotho Promise in 2006 during an auction held in Belgium for $12.4 million.

Laurence Graff, who founded the firm in 1960, says the stone will tell its story, deciding how it’s going to be cut.
Lucara declared the sale of the Lesedi La Rona just a day its Toronto-listed shares dropped 1.7%. The stock went high in the months after the discovery of Lesedi La Rona but has dropped over 40% since the failed auction last year.

The unearthed diamond initially unearthed was the Cullinan Diamond, 3,106-carat, which was found in South Africa in 1905. The Cullinan Diamond was cut into lesser stones, and some of these stones stand as part of crown jewels for British royal families.